The present invention relates to milk foaming devices and a dispensing assembly for use with a milk foaming device.
People all over the world enjoy coffee beverages and are increasingly demanding the "classic" coffee beverages made with espresso. Espresso is the essence of the coffee bean which many fanciers of coffee believe gives the richest, most complex flavor of the beverage. The "classic" espresso beverages include such beverages as caffe latte, cappuccino, and espresso macchiato. These "classic" espresso-type beverages use one or more shots of espresso in combination with steamed milk, a quantity of foamed milk, or both. For example, the caffe latte uses one shot of espresso with a volume of steamed milk topped off with foamed milk. The cappuccino uses the foamed milk as a primary ingredient with the addition of a smaller volume of steamed milk and a shot of espresso. The espresso macchiato uses a single shot of espresso with a dollop of foamed milk as garnish or as a flavor and heat-retaining cap.
As can be seen from above, the steaming and especially the foaming of milk is essential to these popular "classic" espresso drinks. The milk is critical because it provides flavor, texture, as well as garnish for these espresso drinks. Additionally, foamed milk is used in other beverages such as steamed or hot cocoa, "steamers" combining steamed milk and a flavoring syrup, as well as any other application where the flavor, texture and garnishing effect of foamed milk is desired.
Prior art milk foaming techniques involved the time consuming and highly skilled ability to steam a pitcher of milk to produce milk foam having a desired loft and consistency. Milk is foamed at an espresso machine by a barista who operates the espresso machine. The espresso machines includes a steam wand connected to a steam source in the machine to provide steam in order to steam milk to produce milk foam. Because the prior art milk steaming techniques require manual steaming and human judgment, they required a level of skill only acquired through teaching and apprenticeship. Additionally, the foaming of milk requires a considerable amount of time in order to bring chilled milk up to a temperature of approximately 170.degree. F. and the proper placement and repositioning of a steam nozzle.
In view of the increasing popularity of espresso drinks, as well as the desire to produce products more consistently and economically, automatic milk foam dispensers have been created. Examples of prior art milk foam dispensers are shown generally in U.S. Pat. No. 4,779,519 to Giuliano and U.S. Pat. No. 4,715,274 to Paoletti. These automatic milk foaming devices combine steam, air and milk in a swirl chamber to produce foamed milk. Both the Giuliano and Paoletti devices dispense foamed milk from the swirl chamber through an opening in the bottom thereof. Both devices also include a baffle or partition positioned in the swirl chamber to slow down the swirling of the foamed milk. These prior art devices help reduce the skill required to operate a milk foaming device, make it more economical since only a needed quantity of milk is used instead of heating a whole pitcher, increase the consistency of the foamed milk produced by these devices, and increase the speed at which the foamed milk can be faster since the time needed to heat up a pitcher of milk is not required.
Additional characteristics that are important to serving foamed milk in coffee beverages or other applications, is the presentation, sanitation and ease of cleanup. Presentation is important since it is desirable to dispense foamed milk into the selected container without overfilling or spraying the container. This is important to sanitation in that each cup of beverage need not be wiped and the milk foamer can be easily cleaned. The easiest milk foaming device to maintain is one that generally is the more sanitary device.
The prior art automatic milk foaming devices generally have problems with presentation, sanitation and cleanup. The devices as shown in Giuliano and Paoletti tend to splatter or spray the foamed milk foam out of the swirl chamber. The splattering of milk is a presentation problem since the milk may foam over on the cup or saucer requiring cleanup of each serving. The splattering problem also creates a sanitation problem in that the beverage serving requires additional handling in order to cleanup the splattered milk. Another sanitation problem is created by the splattering of the milk on the outside of the dispensing device. As the milk is very hot it tends to crust on the outside making cleanup difficult. Efficiency is adversely affected as a result of the prior art presentation, sanitation and cleanup problems. Efficiency is affected since time is required to remove the splattered milk from the beverage serving as well as cleaning up the dispensing device.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide an automatic milk foaming device which dispenses foamed milk into a container without splattering. Such a device would prevent the presentation, sanitation and cleanup problems discussed hereinabove. Such a device would also increase the efficiency of an operation employing foamed milk in its food service products.